Cathedrals making Friends: The religious social capital of Anglican cathedral Friends’ associations

Spiritual Capital (Theos and The Grubb Institute, 2012) concluded that the future of Church of England cathedrals lies particularly in their ability to enable and sustain a range of connections. The cathedrals’ capacity to do this is significant for the preservation/maintenance of their fabric, in which task they are supported by 55,000 subscribing Friends. As well as encouraging Friends to donate money, volunteer and pray for the cathedrals, these long-standing associations offer subscribers opportunities to develop social networks and enhance cultural knowledge. This study conceptualized the Friends as para-church organizations that promote various forms of capital in the social arena, including bonds with the cathedral, as corporate person. The aim was to examine the utility of social capital models to explain the ways in which belonging to a Friends’ association can promote gift-giving to cathedrals. Questionnaire data were collected from 923 Friends of six English cathedrals. Multiple regression was used to identify the key predictors of religious social capital (measured by two indices, accessing different aspects of the resource), cultural capital, and ‘regard for the cathedral’ (a form of bonding social capital between Friend and cathedral). In turn, the four forms of capital were tested as predictors of different types of giving to cathedrals. The analyses indicated that the form of capital which Friends contributed varied according to Friendship style (identified as Sociable, Networked, Attached, Cultured); and that the nature of gifts to cathedrals differed according to capital(s) contributed. There was no evidence that household income was related to capitals or gifting. The thesis contributes to the growing corpus of empirical work on cathedrals, and also to social capital theory (by developing notions of vicarious social capital, and ‘regard’). The findings of the study will assist cathedral Friends’ Councils that wish to adopt an instrumental approach to generate capital(s) in the social arena, in order to pursue charitable aims.